Files downloaded via Collab are corrupted

Hi to everyone,
I've experienced this particular issue for a while, and because my "workaround" is temporary unavailable (I used another PC to update/download updates with Unity) and I can't find any solution on the web, I decided to open this thread.

The problem is extremely simple: when I download files with the Collab Service, the downloaded files aren't imported correctly in Unity: when I search them in the project directory, I find that their size is 0 byte. It seems to me that this problem is not related to a specific version of Unity (it started when I still had the 2018 version, while now I've got the 2019.2.13f), and it's probably an error caused by my computer (I have an Asus X556UV). I'm quite convinced of it because my other PC can use the collaborate service correctly, and because I've had other connection issues with this PC. Anyway, I've used the collab service for some months before it started giving me this error: I've already tried to completely delete Unity from my pc but it didn't worked. I've also tried all the solutions for this kind of issues I found on this forum, but nothing worked for me.

I thank you in advance for any help you can give me, because this issue is making really hard for me to work on this project.

 

Hi @gabrielemontanaro, I'm sorry that you're running into issues with downloading your assets via Collaborate on this machine. Are all of your assets 0 bytes or are only some of them? Do you see any files in your Project's Library/Collab/Download folder? Would you be willing to run our Network Reporting Tool and DM your log so that I can see if there are any issues with your machine's connection to our service?

 

Yes, all the assets that I downloaded during the update are 0 bytes, while the assets that I already had before the update are still ok. In the Library/Collab/Download folder there are some files, but they seems to be random assets files and their total dimension is some kilobytes. I'd upload here the log of the Network reporting tool but it says it has not an allowed extension, and I don't know what "DM" does mean.

Thank you for your answer, and sorry if I reply after so many days but this is a busy period for me.

 

No worries about the delay. By DM, I mean sending me a direct message here on the forums.

I know you said you've tried a lot of possible workarounds already but I'd just like to confirm what they are real quick. How much free space does your computer have? Have you checked if you have enough space to download your latest update? Have you also tried doing a fresh install of your Project?

 

I have more than 100Gb of free space on my pc, while the complete project has a dimension of less than 2Gb. And yes, I've tried to reinstall the project completely but all I got were 0-bytes files. The workaround I tried involved deleting one or more folders in the project related to the collab functions ( the first solutions I found on the web) but I don't remember exactly what folders.

 

Thank you for the additional feedback and for your network report! We didn't see any glaring issues with your network, aside from a slower than usual upload speed. But we don't anticipate that to have any affect on your downloads. Are you using a proxy or VPN of any kind? If so, could you try disabling them to see if that affects anything?

It would also help us a lot in figuring out why your machine is running into this issue if you could send another DM to me with your Editor.log and Collab debugging enabled. You can enable Collab debugging by adding the following argument when running Unity from either the command line or from a shortcut, -enableCollabEventLogs. After opening Unity with that argument, try to download your project again. After it finishes downloading, find your Editor.log and send that to me (it has personally identifiable information so it's best not to share that publicly on a forum).

 

No, I'm not using any proxy or VPN that I'm aware of. My internet connection is slow, but this shouldn't be an issue because my other pc can use collaborate services and it is connected to the same network.

 

Thanks for the added info. Could you try shutting down Unity, going into your project's Library/Collab folder, deleting the CollabSnapshot file, then reopening your project and waiting for Collab to recheck your changes to see if it gives you an option to Update again?

 

I followed your suggestion, and this is what's happened.

After deleting the CollabSnapshot file and reopening Unity, I could download again the update. I did it and then minimize the Unity window while doing other stuff with my pc. After a while I tried to maximize Unity to see the progress, but I couldn't do it: my task manager said that the process "Unity" was not responding, so I killed it. Then I opened again Unity, I tried to download again the update but it stopped working immediately. So I closed Unity, I deleted the entire project, I created a new project and I linked it to my project on the cloud. This time when I downloaded the update it worked correctly, I had some compiler errors but they are probably nothing to worry about.

So, my question is: why two days ago, when I followed the same extact procedure (create a new project, link it with the project on the cloud, download the updates) for multiple times, I always got 0-bytes files? And why now it seems to work? If I understand this, maybe I can make the collab work without being afraid to lose data.

In the next two days I'll try to submit an update and then I'll understand if collab really started working again: I'll write another reply to this post to make you know if it works.

In any case thank you for your support, you have been very helpful and gave me some hope with a problem I was struggling with for too many months.

 

Unluckily, the issue is still there. I tried to update my changes on the server and when the uploading bar reached 99%, it appeared the message "Cannot submit changes to server". After the third time I decided to delete the CollabSnapshot file: I reopened Unity and I had to re-download the update (I already had them, but having deleted the CollabSnapshot file Unity couldn't know). All the file I downloaded were corrupted, and I can't even open the project now.

 

We had similar kind of problems, which were solved by just shifting to Plastic SCM.

 

I'm sorry that you're still running into this issue. We'd like to help confirm if your project is actually corrupted. Would you be alright with letting me make a copy of your project for debugging purposes? You can just send me a DM with your Project's UPID if you are OK with that.

 

Ok, I'll send you my project's UPID, it isn't a top-secret project so I don't mind if you see it. But, if it wasn't already clear, I want to remark that the project itself isn't corrupted at all - both me and my colleague submit and download updates - and only the files that I download with my own pc (which is the only pc I have that is able to run Unity, the one I use to submit and download updates can barely open Unity) are effectively corrupted.

 

Thank you for your advice, but I want to try to get Collab working before moving to another program. The Collab is a very fast and easy way to share the changes in the project with my colleague, so I don't want to give up so easily. Also, my colleague doesn't experience any issue, and even now the project is going forward (but we can't make updates often, though).